In the past few decades the use of petroleum and its many by-products, has increased markedly to a point where the chemical industry has been challenged to develop more effective and safer measures which will preclude injury to the population and to the environment.
Since the chemical industry and our economy, in general, rely so heavily on petroleum and its by-products, there has been a tremendous need to develop a degreaser composition, which can effectively clean the various types of oils usually encountered in marine and refining equipment, such as engines, ship decks, tanks and the like, and yet does not possess the numerous disadvantages which are inherent in the petroleum based degreasers currently in use.
Although a wide variey of detergent and degreaser compositions have been disclosed in the literature, to date, none of the products disclosed has been entirely satisfactory for use in the marine and oil refining industries where a heavy duty degreaser is routinely needed for cleaning. Known detergent formulations are either too weak or ineffective for use in heavy duty cleaning operations, or if capable of use for such appplications, contain harsh, petroleum based components which are toxic, do not readily degrade and are usually environmentally unsuitable for large scale industrial use.
A variety of surfactants, builders and other additives have been employed in cleaning compositions but to date known has been employed in the unique combination as in the composition of the present invention and which have been found to be particularly useful as a heavy duty degreaser for the marine and refining industries. For applications in other areas numerous products are on the market which contain specific combination of ingredients which are indicated to be suitable for the particular use.
For instance, in U.S. pat. No. 4,380,268 which issued to K. R. Martin on Apr. 19, 1983, there is disclosed and claimed a petroleum and gas well enhancement agent. It is stated in the patent that the recovery of oil and gas is enhanced by the removal of paraffin and other hydrocarbons from wells by flushing the wells with water containing a polymer of a primary alcohol and ethylene oxide plus sodium silicate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,414,128 issued on Nov. 8, 1983 to P. C. E. Goffinet and claims liquid detergent compositions which are indicated to be particularly useful as hard surface cleaners for general household purposes. The composition is an aqueous liquid detergent composition containing surfactant, sequiterpene and a polar solvent.
There is disclosed a metal plate treating solution in U.S. Pat. No. 4,028,281 which issued on June 7, 1977 to B. Millard et al which is indicated to be an aqueous solution capable of cleaning and imparting a hydrophilic silicate coating onto a metal surface and wherein the solution contains an alkali metal silicate, a water active surfactant and a ferric chelate of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid.
In U. S. Pat. No. 4,390,465 which issued June 28, 1983 to P. Spekman, Jr., there is disclosed a low temperature composition for plating pretreatment of ferrous metals. This composition is an aqueous solution composed of an alkali metal silicate, an active surfactant, a water conditioner such as the tetrasodium salt of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, and a brightener. The solution is indicated to be particularly useful for the pretreatment of ferrous metals which are destined to be plated. The formulation is utilized at a temperature which is slightly above ambient and which may be cooled to demulsify said retaining oils prior to disposal. The linear ethoxylated alcohols disclosed in the patent are organic phosphate ester complexes.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a novel degreaser composition which is particularly useful for cleaning engines, tanks, and processing equipment in both the marine and refining industries. Another object of the present invention is to provide a degreaser composition which is water-based and essentially nontoxic. A further object of this invention is to provide a degreaser composition which avoids the used of organic diluents and other petroleum based solvents. A still further object of the present invention is to provide a degreaser compostion which is ideally suited where a heavy duty degreaser is required. Another object of the present invention is to provide a degreasing composition which has the ability of a pretroleum based degreaser and yet does not contain petroleum or other toxic or harzardeous solvents. A further object is to provide a degreaser composition which does not leave a residue on the surface treated. These and other objects will readily become apparent to those skilled in the art in the light of the teaching herein set forth.